The Librarian and the Prime Minister

I cadged a lift from Ingham to Cairns with Margaret and Andrew’s daughter, Johanna, who was returning to University there. She very kindly dropped me off right outside the hostel I had booked, the Traveller’s Oasis – it was a really nice, clean and well-equipped hostel, probably the nicest one I have stayed in so far. It was evening by the time I arrived in Cairns so I dumped my stuff and went out to have a little wander around the town to get my bearings and called into a nice Thai restaurant for some dinner before heading back for an early night.

The next day I was up bright and early for an exploration of the city. Cairns is undoubtedly a tourist mecca, but I felt it had a much nicer feel to it than the Gold Coast with less unashamed commercialism. You can actually feel that Cairns has a soul and personality of its own over and above its abundant tourist industry. I stopped off at the information centre and picked up a guide for a heritage trail of Cairns’s old buildings and wandered around looking at some very pleasant architecture, popping into the city library (with a beautiful old-fashioned interior) and the art gallery. There was an interesting exhibition on based around environmentalism, with sculptures created from discarded material found on beaches, water conservation and protection of ecosystems.

In the evening I met up with a Maltese guy called Stef, who took me out for a delicious Italian meal and then to the new marina development. This area of the city has undergone a radical transformation and the result is truly impressive. There are classy bars and restaurants all fitted out to the highest specification with some really innovative designs and

the whole effect is modern and sophisticated. It was while having a rather expensive gin and tonic in one of these classy establishments with Stef that we spotted someone we both knew. Instinctively we waved at him and as he waved back at us we suddenly realised that this was none other than Kevin Rudd, the Prime Minister of Australia! He was in town for the Pacific Island conference and was out for dinner with his family. I’m sorry, but I just couldn’t bring myself to approach him to get a photo – although I was sorely tempted! As we looked around the bar it dawned on us that the place was teeming with plain-clothes police officers, so it’s probably just as well.